


i believe things will get better slowly (let's raise each other up)

by remi_mae



Series: Anthea Lin-Wayne [3]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Batfamily, Brother-Sister Relationships, Family, Gen, Jason Todd is a good brother, Sibling Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:14:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26074744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/remi_mae/pseuds/remi_mae
Summary: Anthea isn't scared of Jason - she isn't. He's just kind of intimidating and maybe he makes her a little nervous. She's not avoiding him though - nope, that one is fully on him, and frankly, Anthea would like to know why and how to fix it so she can get to know her foster brother.
Relationships: Jason Todd & Original Female Character(s)
Series: Anthea Lin-Wayne [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1511444
Comments: 1
Kudos: 26





	i believe things will get better slowly (let's raise each other up)

**Author's Note:**

> Can I just say I am so not used to writing like, any of the Bat fam, but Jason is absolutely the hardest for me. Trying to find a balance of Jason's actual personality, but also him being on better terms with the family, and not wanting to scare Anthea or make her uncomfortable is _hard_ \- though I suppose that's sort of the point of me writing like, one fic per Bat fam member, to figure out how they act around Anthy. (I'm also firmly in the Jason Todd is a Good Big Brother camp, so I think he would absolutely be more gentle around Anthy.)
> 
> This takes place probably a couple of weeks to a month after the last fic, so roughly two months after Anthy has begun being fostered by Bruce. Title from Taeyong & Yoo Youngjin's Cure.

If Anthea was entirely honest, Jason scared her - or at least at first.

Well, maybe it wasn't that he _scared_ her, but she was definitely a little wary; Jason Todd-Wayne's reputation preceded him. (All of the Wayne's reputations preceded them but he was the _scary_ one, in the same way Dick was the nice one and Cass was the quiet one.)

He never did or said anything to make her think he was as rude or mean as some people made him out to be. If anything, what little she spoke to and saw of him in the first weeks after coming to stay at the manor spoke to him being very much the opposite of what rumours liked to say. Aside from Damian (and she really wasn't sure what that kids deal was) Anthea spoke to Jason the least, but it was in a very different way from Damian.

Tim told her, like, the day after she moved in, that Bruce and Dick had both told Damian that if he couldn't be nice to her, to not talk to her at all. She always assumed the things people said about the youngest Wayne being rude were exaggerated... and then she heard some of the things he said at dinner. It made her quite glad he was told to be nice or not speak to her at all (something she told Tim, and he laughed but had quickly agreed.) Jason though, Jason just sort of... avoided her. Damian did the same thing, but it was very different.

If Anthea was already in a room and Damian walked in, he would get this sour look on his face, turn on his heel and leave, often times grumbling under his breath in Arabic that Anthea couldn't understand.

If _Jason_ walked into a room and noticed her, he'd say hello and be polite, but then pretend like he'd forgotten something and leave, almost like he was running away from her.

She didn't get it, _at all_. If anything, shouldn't it have been the other way around, with her trying to avoid Jason because he scared her? She mentioned it to Dick one afternoon, when he decided he'd pick her up from school after an earlier shift, and he laughed. Quite a bit actually, and she was glad she'd waited until they'd parked by a coffee shop before asking.

"Jay doesn't want to scare you," Dick managed, once he'd finally stopped laughing. "He was worried that you would have heard rumours and would be scared of him, so he's been trying to avoid being alone in a room with you so he _doesn't_ scare you, or make you uncomfortable or anything."

That... okay, that made sense, she supposed.

"I'm not... I'm not scared of him though?" She said, sounding more sure about it than she would have a couple of weeks ago. "He's a bit, um, intimidating? But I'm not actually scared of him." Dick let out a quiet hum, and nodded once to himself.

"I'll try to talk to him, but Jay's... not always the best with new people?" It sounded more like a question than a response, but Anthea could understand that. Her anxiety made it hard a lot of the time, to meet new people, though she was generally a quiet person anyway, shy until she'd gotten to know people. Sometimes meeting new people left her scared and anxious about how to act around them though, scared of messing up and insulting them or someone getting angry at her, stuff like that.

The idea of Jason being similar that way - not anxious maybe, but not sure how to act - it honestly relaxed her a little more. It made him seem more human - like the rest of the Wayne's, she was probably more similar to him than she realized. And, if he was anything like her, then whether or not Dick talked to him, it probably wouldn't make a difference. She'd have to show Jason that he didn't scare her, which was... something she'd have to work to, she was pretty sure. He might not scare her, but he was kind of intimidating, and well, Anthea was Anthea. She was anxious and not great with new people. She might live in the same house as him now, but the manor was huge - she could go days without seeing someone, and it wasn't exactly hard. If Alfred didn't insist on everyone eating dinner together when they were free (which was both more and less often than her classmates seemed to assume) she probably wouldn't see Damian at all (not that she was opposed to seeing him less often.)

After a couple of weeks of trying but not particularly succeeding in getting Jason to stay in the same room as her, she was almost ready to stop trying. Almost. He'd been in the room with her more often, but when it did happen, it was mostly because of Dick or Tim, and Jason was still obviously trying to avoid her. Tim would be studying with her in the library, and he'd tell Jason they needed his help, so he'd stay for a little bit. Or Dick was watching something with Anthea and would get Jason to stay by promising they could watch what he wanted next. It still, generally, resulted in Jason not making eye contact with her, and rarely speaking to her, but it was an improvement, sort of?

It came to a head when Anthea had all but locked herself in the library to work on an English essay. She'd already told Tim and Dick that she would likely be in there all afternoon, and could they please not bother her because English and literature were not her strong suit, and she needed to focus and as few distractions as possible. Tim told her that he'd tell their other siblings and Bruce what was going on, and so far only Alfred had come in, long enough to make sure she had some water and snacks, which she greatly appreciated - even if she was a little surprised she was even _allowed_ food in the manor library, what with all the expensive first editions of books and things.

(Cass also popped in for a moment, to grab a book, but Anthea only noticed she was there because she had knocked a book off the table and Cass caught it before it hit the ground.)

She was in the middle of rereading the same passage of her book - very, very close to wanting to tear her hair out - when the door to the library opened. She didn't look up immediately; instead looking from the book, to what she'd written so far for her essay, and back to the book before looking up to find Jason standing in the doorway, looking... conflicted?

"Hi?" She ended up saying after a few moments of awkward staring when Jason didn't say anything, but also didn't actually enter the room, nor leave.

"Tim said you were having trouble with an English assignment?" He sounded a little unsure, but Anthea nodded - a little hesitant at first, but honestly, she _was_ struggling and could use some help - and he moved into the library properly, closing the door behind him. "What's it about?"

(Given Jason's general... everything, it was easy to forget that all of the Wayne's were incredibly smart, and he was no exception. It was also easy to forget that Jason was an English major with a love of literature in general.)

Anthea shrugged though, gesturing to the book laid open beside her computer. "We're supposed to write about the hidden meaning, what the author must have meant. I think it's all baloney," she let out a little huff. "Like I'm going to know what the author meant," she mumbled the last bit, wrinkling her nose.

Honestly, one of the worst parts about not going to the same school as her best friend anymore was not being able to share English glass with him. Misha was _a lot_ better when it came to English and literature - much like how she was better with computers and numbers. It was easy enough to help him with math, as long as he wasn't learning things she had yet to, but it didn't work so well for literature - especially given they'd already known they were reading different books and stories in class this year. Trying to figure out 'hidden meanings' and 'what the author meant when writing' was stupid. As it was, she just preferred her science and math classes, where there was a concrete answer to the questions, rather than subjective meaning.

Jason let out a quiet hum, pausing for a minute. He appeared to be thinking, rather than just not being sure what to say, so Anthea didn't press or try to say anything. She knew how annoying it was to try and figure out what you were trying to say only to be interrupted, and thus being thrown off track.

"Assuming your teacher isn't a complete ass, there probably isn't a 'wrong' answer anyway. They just want you to, I dunno, try and get into the authors head? Take into account the time period the piece was written, where the author was from and the views of people of that time. Stuff like that." He shrugged a little, before continuing. "I'd say as long as you can explain yourself well enough, you'll get a decent mark." The 'unless your teacher is just like that' went unsaid, but Anthea figured it wasn't needed. Her English teacher was a bit of a hard grader, but it was mostly because she seemed to have high expectations for them. She got decent grades, but well, English wasn't her best subject, easily.

That did make her feel better about getting an okay mark on the assignment at least, but... "I'm going to be honest, I barely understand what I read. And I've read it a few times," she admitted, feeling a little sheepish.

Jason seemed to find it a little amusing. Anthea probably would have felt a little offended if Abbey hadn't texted her earlier complaining about the same assignment and having no idea what the story they'd been assigned was even about. It was nice knowing she wasn't the only one who was lost - and well, Jason was an English major, and was a couple of years older than her. He had the advantage here.

She nudged the book across the table, so he could see what story she was supposed to be working with, and was pleasantly surprised when Jason pulled the chair across from her out and sat down - he was also clearly trying not to laugh. She, for one, was not going to complain. First of all, she honestly did need help with her assignment (or at least figuring out what the hell she had read) and well... she did want to get to know Jason. That she could tell he was trying not to laugh at her was a start, probably.

It wasn't until a few days later that Anthea realized how much of a 'start' it had actually been.

She and Jason had stayed in the library for a good few hours, and she'd gotten the bulk of her essay outlined, she just had to fill in the detail and make it sound better. Jason had helped a lot more than he seemed to want to admit. Sure, she could have used Dick or Tim to bounce ideas off of, just to hear her thoughts out loud and see if they made any sense, but Jason actually knew what she was talking about, and would nudge her in the right direction if she'd forgotten some detail about the story. Neither one had realized how long it had been until Alfred came to inform her that no matter how important or soon her assignment was due, it would still be there after dinner, and had found Anthea paused in her typing while Jason read a passage out loud to her.

Though Jason hadn't come back to the library with her after dinner, when she went back the next day to try and finish up her essay, Jason had joined her after a little while. They might not have spent that afternoon talking a lot, but it was a comfortable silence, filled only with the sound of pages turning, pen on paper and fingers dancing across the keyboard. It was nice. It was comfortable.

It wasn't like he suddenly started hanging out with her outside of the library, and even then they were mostly just doing their own thing, though Anthea would sometimes ask him a question, or Jason would run something by her and ask if it made sense to her. Still, he stopped leaving the room when he noticed she was there, and would talk to her without being like, prompted by Dick (or Tim but mostly Dick.)

The day after she passed in her essay, feeling pretty good about getting a decent grade on it, she was waiting with Abbey at the end of the day. Although Abbey could have just gone back to her dorm, she'd taken to waiting with her while Anthea was waiting for Alfred to pick her up. She wouldn't really complain, if only because while it was still more or less a rumour that she was being fostered by Bruce Wayne, enough people had heard and believed it that when left on her own at the end of the day, sometimes she'd end up with people trying to ask her questions that she didn't want to answer, or trying to suck up because she was 'basically a Wayne now,' stuff like that. Abbey was nice enough to chase people away or at least keep them from bothering her until Alfred got there to pick her up.

Today was turning out to be a bit different than usual though. While Dick had picked her up a few times, those were the only times she hadn't been picked up by Alfred. She also didn't really know which cars her foster siblings drove. She'd seen Dick's, obviously, but she had no idea what Jason, Cass or Tim drove, assuming all three of them drove (she wasn't quite sure if Cass drove, and Tim was a few months older than her, so like, she knew he could definitely have his license, but she had no idea if he actually did.) Because of this, she could be forgiven for not realizing that Jason had pulled up to the curb near the school until her phone buzzed with a new text message.

She frowned at her phone a little, only half listening to whatever Abbey was talking about now (some new show she was watching that wasn't really Anthea's type of show, but she didn't mind Abbey telling her about it.) She looked up from her phone, eyes roaming over the cars that were pulled up near the school until she saw Jason watching her from the driver side window.

Anthea blinked, confused, but quickly shook herself out of it.

"Sorry, my rides here. See you tomorrow, Abbey!" She felt a bit bad for interrupting, but her friend only looked confused for a moment before smiling and waving her off, letting her go with a promise she'd finish explaining tomorrow. Anthea wasn't sure if Abbey had seen Jason or just assumed that maybe Alfred had a different car today (after all, Abbey was the only person she'd actually told about her new foster family, at school at least. Misha had been informed as soon as it had really sunk in) but she didn't say anything about it either way, so Anthea didn't either. While she didn't mind talking to Abbey about her current family situation, she also wasn't... super comfortable talking about it with anyone who wasn't Misha, and she'd known Misha since they were toddlers. There was a big difference between talking to Misha and Abbey, obviously.

After she'd slipped into the car, taking a minute to put her bag on the floor in front of her and buckle her seat belt, she turned to Jason with a look of utter confusion on her face.

"I convinced Alfred to let me pick you up today," he said, before she could even open her mouth to ask why he was the one picking her up. "I wanted to, uh, take you shopping, I guess? Bookstores, that stuff. I just wanted to hang out with you without the possibility of the demon brat or Dickface getting in the way." That was fair, Anthea had to admit.

Anthea liked Dick, she did, but he did have a tendency to, perhaps unconsciously, insert himself into the conversation. It hadn't really happened with Jason, mostly since they just sort of sat in silence in the library and looked busy, so Dick hadn't really bothered them, but Dick had done that when she was talking with Tim a few times. It was clearly not something he was doing on purpose, but well, he still did it.

Damian on the other hand... Anthea still had no idea what to do with him, honestly. She felt she was much better off avoiding him and just not talking to him if she could.

It would be good to have some time, just her and Jason, without any of the others around. Anthea was hoping she'd get that with each of the family members. She wasn't sure if she would be sticking around for a long time or not (but given Bruce's track record... she'd be staying) but she wanted to be comfortable with her foster family. They were her family now too, even if it was potentially temporary.

"Okay," Anthea nodded, smiling at Jason. "I read the same like, two genres of books though, so I hope you have some recommendations that are either one."

Jason laughed, just a short one, as he turned the car on and began pulling away from the curb.

"I'm sure I can find something you'll like. Maybe I'll get you reading new stuff." He probably would, and if it meant they could talk about it when she was finished, she'd give just about anything a shot.

**Author's Note:**

> So, uh, it's been five years since I've been in school, so I don't really remember any annoying English/Literature assignments, plus English was always my favourite subject, so. Trying to think up an assignment, however vague, that Anthy would find annoying but that Jason could talk about and explain to her to make her find it less annoying was, uh, kind of hard. It's literally just there to get them talking anyway, but it took me a stupid amount of time to get this out because I got stuck on that :/ like brain please.


End file.
